Superhero Media: Dragon Ball Z - The History of Trunks

Ok, I swear I'm going to talk about how great The History of Trunks is and its importance in the Dragon Ball Z series, but there's something else I need to get to first; Dream Theatre, Bootsy Collins and Buckethead are all on the soundtrack of this film. Really. I have the Remastered Collection on DVD, so maybe it's different for other copies, and I have to watch the dub to hear the tracks, but holy shit Bootsy teamed up with Buckethead at some point to soundtrack Dragon Ball Z and I only just found out about it! In an alternate timeline, Goku is felled by a "heart virus" and the world moves on for a few months until a pair of evil Androids attack, killing most of the Z Fighters and forever altering the history of the planet. Years later, a tween named Trunks wants to battle the Androids like his father did, despite being too weak to make a difference, thankfully he is saved by one of the greatest characters in the entire Dragon Ball franchise, Future Gohan! Ok, so the name is silly, but the future alternate to Gohan is a fascinating character who warrants some serious unpacking. 

Most of The History of Trunks you probably know if you're a fan, as huge sections of it are lifted into Dragon Ball Z, and the story has been told again and again; so I'm not covering it too much here. Let's start with Gohan first, now I'm normally not fond of adult Gohan in anything but the Piccolo or navy blue gi (Sayiaman aside), as it provides some visual difference for the character apart from Goku that the group tends to need for colour balance if nothing else. Future Gohan is the one exception for me, not just because of the lack of other characters, but because it is really only in this one timeline that Gohan has willingly taken on the role of planetary defender left to him by his father. This Gohan hasn't forged his own path, like he does in DBS, he's driven by duty and destiny, perhaps even aware that his end may not be a happy one, but he carries on because that is what expected of him. In many ways, The History of Trunks is a film about Gohan, and just how good he has it in the main timeline, making his decision to return to fighting in DBS all the more poignant. 

As I've discussed before, The History of Trunks was the first piece of media where I became aware of the "Villain Apocalypse" concept which would come to be something of a fixation for me. Androids 17 and 18 are walking engines of destruction, slowly eradicating the human race merely for something to do, and no one can stop them. Hell, The History of Trunks doesn't even really have a happy ending, as Trunks cannot defeat the Androids and has to travel back in time to make the Trunks Saga happen. There is a depth and pathos to The History of Trunks that is pretty rare in the DBZ films, truly being a character piece more so than just an excuse for a series of fights strung together. True, Androids 17 and 18 don't get even a sliver of the development that they would in the continuing series, but their role in this outing is more akin to a force of nature with a face. For a long time, The History of Trunks was the one piece of DBZ that I owned a copy of, so I must have seen it a least a dozen times, but it's still enjoyable and one of the better written parts of the overall series.